Wired on McBride

leifbk writes "Wired has a very interesting feature article on how Darl McBride and his sidekick Mike Anderer rose to fame. Some particularly juicy parts are about Anderer: 'He's supercompetitive,' said one. 'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'" A very thorough retelling of the legend that is SCO.

Comments

Quick!

[sockonafish]

Assemble an army of fainting geeks and march to Anderer's house!!!

Re:Quick!

[Reteo Varala]

Preferably in single file...

McBride

[tasinet]

McBride?
Any relation to Ronald McDonald's Bride?

Re:McBride

[Anonymous Coward]

That's one Bride that's going to be abandoned at the altar :)

Re:McBride

[Anonymous Coward]

That's one Bride that's going to be abandoned at the altar :)

No, that Bride will spend the next 25 years with the Bridegroom, in their 4x6 ft cell.

McBride is passe

[ObviousGuy]

Think about it. The whole idea of history is that the victors will tell it. The losers will be written out of it or at the very worst written into it as very bad characters.

McBride is about as bland as you get. He is the CEO of a company that produces nothing. He is fighting a movement arguably composed of nothing. He is the Don Quixote of the software world except he doesn't have half the attractiveness.

Leave him to his money, he's got plenty of it. Linux will survive this idiotic onslaught, and whatever other challenges there are to come.

Let's focus on making Linux better for all of us, rather than fighting windmills.

Good idea, eh muchacho?

Re:McBride is passe

[TopShelf]

Darl deserves his place in history, alongside Natalie Portman, goatse.cx and hot grits. I'm sure this isn't exactly what he had in mind, though...

Re:McBride is passe

[Anonymous Coward]

No, your attitude will allow others to do the same...

His DNA should be removed from the gene-pool as a warning to others... ...well, ok that's a bit overkill,

at least a criminal investigation, to see who is the master behind the puppets.

Re:McBride is passe

[Anonymous Coward]

alongside Natalie Portman

I believe you meant to Jar Jar.

Re:McBride is passe

[orthogonal]

I believe you meant [Darl McBride belongs alongside] Jar Jar [Binks].

Meesa say yousa owe $699. Meesa say "pump and dump".

Re:McBride is passe

[vsprintf]

He is the Don Quixote of the software world except he doesn't have half the attractiveness.

Quixotic is an apt description.

From the article: What has the son of a farmer, a devout Mormon, and the father of seven done to so swiftly earn the [most hated man in high tech] honor?

This guy just doesn't know when to quit.

Re:McBride is passe

[linzeal]

Natalie Portman has undetaken a much more mature role in the upcoming movie Garden State. Might want to check out what she has to say in her new interview in the 'disheist' mag for pop culture Andy Warhol's Interview.

Re:McBride is passe

[Anonymous Coward]

IBM deserves McBride and SCO. Apparently, IBM was doing the samething in the early 90's. I don't pay too much attention to McBride and IMB anymore because it's a battle between the two scumbags. Whichever scumbag wins, we will still be in the same amount of trouble.

Re:McBride is passe

[Bob Uhl]

Gosh, how many /.ers remember the whole stupid, silly, sublimely ridiculous Natalie Portman-petrified, hot-grits posts? Way, way, way to many years. Good lord, I'm old:-(

Still misses the point about Linux

[Anonymous Coward]

There *is* very good documentation on where the code has come from -- despite what the article says.

Sheesh.

At least this is better than your average mainstream coverage.

Re:Still misses the point about Linux

[kfg]

There *is* very good documentation on where the code has come from -- despite what the article says.

I think what he's talking about here is the fact that Linus doesn't have super psychic powers to be able to descern that when code is submited it is really unique and not merely that he knows who submitted the code.

But that propriatary software makers do.

We can confirm this for ourselves by applying our own super psychic powers against propriatary code. If you do this you will find that you cannot detect any code that has been copied from some other source.

So who are you going to believe, Linus, or your own third eye?

KFG

Faint at the sight of blood

[RALE007]

'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

I'll faint if he cut his own neck, I swear!

No

[Anonymous Coward]

No, but I think that joke might be related to Grimace.

Re:No

[dosius]

It sure made me grimace ^^;

Moll.

class clown

[k4_pacific]

'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

So he's like that kid from grade school who would turn his eyelids inside-out? Charming.

Anderer: Hey, look what I can do. Bleh-Bleh!
Everyone: Ewww!!!!

Re:class clown

[Anonymous Coward]

Agreed.

In the story text, he's described as "supercompetitive." I think a more straightforward description would be that he's a sociopath.

Re:class clown

[kfg]

I deal with people like that by being "super competitive" (i.e., an asshole) right back at them.

If that sort of person knows you faint at the sight of blood and cuts himself to watch you pass out and you don't pass out, they get all agitated, foam at the mouth a bit, and then pass out.

Two can play at that game.

KFG

w-w-w-ired

[i love pineapples]

I've been wired on McBride, but it made my nose bleed and I felt completely awful the next day. I'll stick to smoking crack... cheaper and less of a hangover.

Re:w-w-w-ired

[Joey Patterson]

How much did you pay for that high? $699?

Re:w-w-w-ired

[_Sprocket_]

Look. When you have any involvement in McBride, you're dealing with massive amounts of crack. It's what he lives off of. McBride is simply a filter for crack. You're probably better off just cutting out the middle man and going to the crack directly.

Re:w-w-w-ired

[networkGhettoWhore]

No, It was the cheap $3.00 cra..... eh nevermind

Competetive?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

That's not being competetive. That's being an ASSHOLE. What kind of pers-- I think I just answered my question.

Re:Competetive?

[orthogonal]

That's not being competetive (sic). That's being an ASSHOLE. What kind of pers-- I think I just answered my question.

From the Slashdot post: Some particularly juicy parts are about Anderer: 'He's supercompetitive,' said one. 'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

Being an aggressive asshole is the way to get ahead! Now move out of my way, you fucking peons! Don't get between me and my yacht!

These wunderkinds don't create anything. They haven't discovered anything. They don't even seem to make particularly astute business decisions.

All they're good at is blundering ahead, kissing the asses of those with power, back-slapping their "friends", and intimidating everyone else.

But we've allowed them to succeed despite the fact that they've never contributed a damn thing.

Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine. Did he ever become as rich as Darl McBride or Mike Anderer?

Ken Thompson, and Dennis Ritchie wrote the Unix Operating System that Darl claims gives him the rights to Linus Torvalds's linux.

Where are Thompson's or Ritchie's or Torvalds's millions?

Well, Thompson and Ritchie got paychecks from AT&T, and AT&T sold Unix to Novell which sold it to Darl's company. So, according to the magic of capitalism -- and the recent additonal idea that corporate CEOs deserve the lion's share of their companies' profits --, the millions belong to Darl.

Torvalds is (according to capitalism) a dumb-ass -- smart enough to write linux, but a dumb-ass nonetheless -- because he gives linux away for free. So no millions for Linus.

Now an good capitalist will tell you that Thompson and Ritchie preferred regular paychecks to working on their own and owning Unix outright. And the capitalist would be right: when all capital is concentrated in the hands of the sons and grandsons of the guys who stole it in the first place, Thompson and Ritchie were free -- to starve.

And a good capitalist will explain to you that the marketplace has determined -- correctly, because the marketplace can't be wrong, that's an axiom of capitalism -- that Darl McBride is socially;y far more valuable than Thompson or Ritchie or Torvalds. Even though without those peons, Darl McBride wouldn't have even a claim to his money.

I'm no socialist., no communist. I see a value to capitalism, to the way the Market allows those with needs to meet those with the means to supply those needs. I think we'd be in deep shit if government tried to "manage" what the market takes care of so handily. And I even see a need to generously pay those CEOs and MBAs whose work makes the Market work so efficiently.

But something is out of kilter when the heroes aren't the innovators, the discovers, the creators, but the MBAstard who can best throw his weight around.

Do I have a solution to propose? Not really.

Maybe we should adjust patent law such that inventors always retain some stake in their invention, even after assigning a patent -- sort of the way European copyright law recognizes creators' rights that can be sold and other rights that can't given up under any contract.

Perhaps we ought to say that after the first ten million in profits to a corporation on a patent, five percent of remaining profits belong to the original inventor, no matter how the patent has been assigned.

Perhaps we ought to establish a national version of the Nobel prizes, and give them to men like Dennis Ritchie.

Or maybe we should just mandate that CEOs can't make more than, say 1000 times what their lowest paid employee makes. If the lowest paid employee makes $20,000 a year, the CEO would be limited to twenty million a year.

I don't have the answers. But I know that something's wrong here.

Re:Competetive?

[Skevin]

Hmm, super-competitive a-hole? Willing to cut himself just to make you faint? I can see some wonderful opportunities at the next SCO Conference...

DARL: Thank you for listening. I'm now willing to field any questions from the attendees.
SMART-ASS NERD: I don't like accidentally looking at the goatse picture everytime I read Slashdot. It disgusts me.
DARL: I don't how this concerns SCO.
MIKE: Wait, a minute, Darl, there are people here who don't like the goatse picture? Well, have a look at this. [drops pants and proceeds to insert fingers into unpleasant-looking anatomy]
Darl: Uh, um, are there any other questions?
S.A.N. #2: I don't like people who hit themselves over the head with a hammer.
Mike: You don't, eh? It just so happens I have a ballpeen hammer right here... Ow! Ooh! Ouch!
AUDIENCE (IN UNISON): We hate the thought of lynching Darl McBride!

I'll leave the rest to oyur imagination...

Solomon Chang

Re:Competetive?

[WhatAmIDoingHere]

There's a sig floating around on slashdot that more people need to notice: "Be nice to the people you meet on your way up, you'll meet them again on your way down."

Re:Competetive?

[njdj]

Or maybe we should just mandate that CEOs can't make more than, say 1000 times what their lowest paid employee makes.
In the so-called "robber baron" era of raw, unfettered capitalism, the late 19th century, when people like Andrew Carnegie and John Rockefeller amassed huge fortunes, a CEO typically was paid about 40 times as much as the median employee. (It makes more sense to use the median as the benchmark instead of the lowest-paid because it's a more stable number).
A CEO who pays himself more than 40 times the median salary at his company is basically stealing. I see no problem with a law which says that "compensation" in excess of 40x the median salary is prima facie evidence of theft. Mr Grasso comes to mind.
Of course, a CEO could rebut the presumption of theft by showing that he had increased company profits commensurately with his salary. But, studies seem to show that a company's change in profitability is not significantly correlated with the CEO's salary.

Re:Competetive?

[EpsCylonB]

But we've allowed them to succeed despite the fact that they've never contributed a damn thing.

Jonas Salk discovered the polio vaccine. Did he ever become as rich as Darl McBride or Mike Anderer?

As you point out, this is not exactly a new phoneomena, it's interesting that some of the most important poeple in the history of of our species either weren't interested in money or got screwed over financially....

Re:Competetive?

[vsprintf]

Or maybe we should just mandate that CEOs can't make more than, say 1000 times what their lowest paid employee makes. If the lowest paid employee makes $20,000 a year, the CEO would be limited to twenty million a year.

I agree with most of your comment, but a 1000-to-one difference is still insane. IIRC, in the sixties, CEOs of large companies typically made no more than 60 times the average worker's salary. Aside from huge egos, insatiable greed, a lack of shame, and complete dishonesty and disregard for the law, what makes an American CEO worth 1000 workers who actually produce something?

Re:Competetive?

[Anonymous Coward]

From the Slashdot post: Some particularly juicy parts are about Anderer: 'He's supercompetitive,' said one. 'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

WANTED: People who faint at the sight of blood (preferably those faint only when large quantities of it have been let out).

Re:Competetive?

[marko123]

If you can be happy without being rich, who needs the money?

Re:Competetive?

[jonbryce]

My studies show it is.

Higher salary = higher costs = lower profits

Re:Competetive?

[gtoomey]

Torvalds is (according to capitalism) a dumb-ass -- smart enough to write linux, but a dumb-ass nonetheless -- because he gives linux away for free. So no millions for Linus.

Linus could be a lot wealthier than most realise.

I believe Redhat gave Linus stock or options around the time of the Redhat IPO.

Re:Competetive?

[Moofie]

People who like to be able to afford food, shelter, education, and healthcare for their families.

Yeah, it's craziness, I know, but some people think that's important stuff.

Re:Competetive?

[nathanh]

Well, Thompson and Ritchie got paychecks from AT&T, and AT&T sold Unix to Novell which sold it to Darl's company.

Thompson and Ritchie got paychecks from AT&T, and AT&T created a subsidary USL to sell UNIX, and USL sold UNIX to Novell, and Novell sold limited rights to UNIX to SCO and SCO is not Darl's company, and SCO sold an unknown subset of their already limited rights to UNIX to Darl's company which is either Caldera or TheSCOGroup, depending on the context.

Important Factoid #1: Novell never dealt directly with Darl's company.

Important Factoid #2: It's entirely unclear what Darl's company actually owns.

Re:Competetive?

[Rinikusu]

I do have a problem with it because then it puts the government's nose into one more area that it shouldn't be in. How about instead we begin holding shareholders responsible for their CEO's actions? I mean, they are "owners" in the enterprise, right? If shareholders are legally as responsible for the actions as CEO's (well, we'd also need to tighten up laws that put more CEO's into Federal Pound-me-in-the-ass prison when they steal billions), don't you think they'd be more selective in the kind of people they put in charge? You know, people that aren't likely to land them in jail. Yes, it would completely shut down the stock exchange and investment in business as we know it today due to investor panic, but after an adjustment period, it would be back to normal. Money calls.

Re:Competetive?

[demon]

Well, you don't have to be _rich_ to be able to afford any of those things necessarily. You just need to get paid fairly. Unfortunately, things aren't fair, are they? But yeah, being rich would be nice...

Re:Competetive?

[bobsalt]

and the funny thing is that they were probably a lot happier in life than the ceos in the rat race. One of the happiest family I have ever met lived in brazil with dirt floors. They made thier own cheese and had coffee plants in thier garden. Happiness comes from creating things, and making other poeple happy. Share the wealth...

Re:Competetive?

[Moofie]

Depends on your definition of "rich". I'd say that anybody who doesn't have to worry about those things is pretty darn rich. Lots of poor people on Earth would think the same thing.

Re:Competetive?

[tgrigsby]

Oh blah, blah, blah. Waa, Waa...

Look, you guys are all whining about how they don't do, make, create, or serve anything. I see a number of long-winded posts going on about CEOs, open markets, democracies, etc. Let's cut through all that for a moment and focus on the generalities, and in so doing, see it from the "aggressive asshole"'s side.

Everyone is a resource, unless they are at the top of the food chain. Kernigan, Ritchie, Torvalds, these guys are resources. They make, they create, they do. Someone further down the line consumes the fruits of their efforts, their time and sweat, and they create other things. These folks also make, create, and do. And so on until you reach a point where someone collects the fruits of all the resources, lives off it, and gives little or nothing back that can be quantified except through sales pitch. These guys are the top of the food chain. You don't like Darl? Guess what -- he doesn't like you either. But where you probably have some kind of respect for his position, he has none for yours. You are food. You are a resource. You exist to serve him, even indirectly and/or unwillingly. Get it?

Re:Competetive?

[Bob Uhl]

Part of the matter is a realisation that sometimes otherwise illegal acts may be necessary. Say that one man must die in order that a hundred billion million may live better lives...

Re:Competetive?

[Bob Uhl]

It's quite possible for a CEO to contribute more than 1,000 times what his employees contribute, particularly if they are union. Not that I agree with the inflation in CEO salaries over the last thirty years--I just don't find it inconceivable that a man exponential levels above the grunts can contribute exponentially more than they can, esp. when they've all manner of no-work provisions.

Re:Competetive?

[vsprintf]

It's quite possible for a CEO to contribute more than 1,000 times what his employees contribute, particularly if they are union.

I don't see that unions have anything to do with it, especially considering the good-old-boy union of CEOs who make up the boards of all the large companies. Why is it that European companies don't have the insane CEO compensation that America has? Are European CEOs really so much less competent?

I just don't find it inconceivable that a man exponential levels above the grunts can contribute exponentially more than they can

You should consider yourself lucky never to have been exposed to the microencephalic upper management drones that really believe an MBA makes them "exponential levels above the grunts" (or maybe you have). Do you really believe that the CEOs of Enron, Worldcom, Qwest, Northwestern Power, and even Disney among others deserved the insane compensation they received for ruining their companies? They are mere mortals like everyone else, and generally worth less than a real worker who produces for the company - not drains it financially.

Re:Competetive?

[Bob Uhl]

Unions have to do with things precisely because they are, for the most part, mechanisms for workers to work less and earn more. They serve as engines of mediocrity, pulling everyone down to the average (e.g. the practise of forbidding workers from working through their breaks).

Are European CEOs really so much less competent?

Given that GDPs across Europe are laughably low, probably.

Do you really believe that the CEOs of Enron, Worldcom, Qwest, Northwestern Power, and even Disney among others deserved the insane compensation they received for ruining their companies?

That's a straw man--those guys obviously don't deserve high incomes, because they failed. I merely noted that it's not unreasonable that a man who commands hundreds of thousands of employees might contribute, say, a thousand-fold what each of them does.

Re:Competetive?

[vsprintf]

Unions have to do with things precisely because they are, for the most part, mechanisms for workers to work less and earn more. They serve as engines of mediocrity . . .

I think I already pointed out that the CEOs of large American companies are a union of good old boys, so we agree.

Given that GDPs across Europe are laughably low, probably.

Really? Who is the CEO of Chrysler? He seems to be doing a better job than his predecessor.

That's a straw man--those guys obviously don't deserve high incomes, because they failed.

It's not a straw man argument at all - it's proof that these insanely compensated CEOs of huge companies are just people and often do not even have good judgement or even basic common sense (let alone morals). GE, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, Martha Stewart Living. Do I really need to go on?

I merely noted that it's not unreasonable that a man who commands hundreds of thousands of employees might contribute, say, a thousand-fold what each of them does.

Until the Second Coming and Jesus takes a job as CEO of some company, I will laugh at that. It is patently unreasonable to expect some silver-spoon inheriting, ego-driven buffoon in an Armani suit to be worth much of anything - let alone a thousand workers. No doubt Paris Hilton will one day be CEO of the family business and worth thousands of average workers. From personal experience with the CEO of one of the largest American defense contractors, I can say that he was a glad-handing, short-sighted, greedy, micro-managing, ethically disadvantaged, contract renegging liar who didn't deserve the golden parachute he got when he was fired (er, resigned to spend time with his family) for tanking the company's stock. To repeat: insanely compensated CEOs are just greedy people, they're not gods. If they were really working in the best interests of the company, they wouldn't be looting it in the first place.

Been theree, read that...

[Eggplant62]

This story was featured by Pamela Jones on the Groklaw site here.

It's a wonderful story, and lends a *METRIC ASSLOAD* of information that gets inside why The SCO Group decided to change uniforms and start playing for the wrong team in the middle of the game. Darl's just a litigious sonofabitch who happened to find another litigious sonofabitch to help dream up this scheme whereby we try to make money off *everyone else's* ideas.

Re:Been theree, read that...

[Anonymous Coward]

For those of us in the US, could you convert that into an Imperial Assload?

Re:Been theree, read that...

[seanvaandering]

help dream up this scheme whereby we try to make money off *everyone else's* ideas.

Bill gates did it first, now look where he is...

Re:Been theree, read that...

[secondsun]

A metric assload is .95 * one Imperial assload. The difference comes form the lack of the standard British rod.

Re:Been theree, read that...

[s.fontinalis]

Much as I hate to defend BillG, he did *create*, well maybe assemble, things along the way. His corporation has added to the products available to the world. SCO is just a sucking sound - a leech.

Re:Been theree, read that...

[borgheron]

Seriously, I found the article to be very informative. It shows SCO in the light the deserve to be shown and that is as a bunch of litigious bastards. One thing to remember here, however, is that Ransom Love, the previous CEO of Caldera, was responsible for finding his own replacement. Do you think that he didn't research Darl's background? I know if I had, I would have seen this coming a mile and a half away.

METRIC ASSLOAD? Is that about the same as a SHIT TON?? Just wondering. :)

Later, GJC

Wow...

[XeRXeS-TCN]

A very interesting article overall, showing that Darl was involved in many other situations before SCO where he was involved in trying to make revenue by nothing but IP violation claims and other lawsuits. It tends to focus on a lot of the linux stuff (obviously) but I find the earlier history much more interesting.

In 1998, Ikon fired McBride (and as late as 2001 was still writing off his acquisitions). McBride turned around and sued his former employer for $10 million, claiming breach of contract, nonpayment of wages, and fraud. It was the first instance of McBride using lawsuits to hack through a thicket of business problems.

From these "humble beginnings" to intentionally thinking up ideas to patent, simply to take people to court over infringement, we can see that clearly he was the best man to pull SCO's slumping sales up with the last-resort tactic of trying to enforce some concocted IP violations. Only this time, he appears to have bitten off more than he can chew.

with legal fees mounting in his battle with Ikon, he faced bankruptcy. McBride eventually dropped his lawsuit, and, as part of the settlement, walked away from his startup.

I'm thinking there's a very good chance we'll see history repeat itself. ;)

Re:Wow...

[wkitchen]

Only this time, he appears to have bitten off more than he can chew.

Yeah, like biting the ear off a polar bear.

The SCO story...

[rice_burners_suck]

After several months of endless SCO stories, my ability to resist posting about Scumware Crapware Operation has all but completely worn away. I want to comment on what happened several months ago, when SCO claimed it had evidence of its garbage being misappropriated into something worthwhile...

Blake Stowell, the Director of Public Relations for The SCO Group, told Newsforge in an email:

To clarify, the code we showed in Vegas was Unix System V code that was copied line for line from UNIX into Linux. It was contributed by a UNIX licensee, which was not IBM. It was shown not to build our case against IBM, but it was shown to identify that there are issues with Linux. Linus can have his opinion of Darl McBride and what was shown, but ultimately, we will have to show our proof in a court setting and convince a jury that we have been wronged by IBM, not this other UNIX licensee that we showed the code from. That will be a separate issue.

As the company that owns the UNIX System V source code, we think we're sufficiently qualified to identify this code.

I think his comment should have been more like this:

"I just wanna clarify what's goin' on over here. Over in the casino, after I had those nine beers, I showed this crumpled piece of paper that read:

10 FOR I=1 TO 10

20 PRINT "I AM COOL"

30 NEXT I

The three lines above are source code in our very own UNIX System V. Here are three lines from the Linux kernel:

static u_int

mcclock_tlsb_read(device_t dev, u_int reg)

{

As you can plainly see, these portions of the Linux source code are exactly identical to our UNIX System V code. All of our programmers, Bob and Jim, told me so themselves, and both of them are highly trained MCSE's. We don't appreciate that the community rejects this as evidence of wrongdoing. Linus is obviously an idiot because his coding skills don't match what Bob and Jim can do in VisualBASIC 2003."

Upon reading this post, one realizes that it closely resembles going to dinner with a buddy, asking, "How's business?" and writing it off as a business expense. Further, this post closely resembles a sandwich that appears large but, once eaten, proves unsatisfyingly small. A staid, steadfast comment, it resembles a pantomime of images.

Because this post is supposed to be about SCO, Darl McBribe / McBlackmail / McExtort / McThreaten / McLose / Mc-Go-To-Jail-Do-Not-Pass-Go-Do-Not-Collect-Two-Hu ndred-Billion-Dollars. But the meat of this post is decidedly unsatisfying: SCO is trying to play hard ball with the big boys when SCO, unfit even to be called a little boy, is barely a hole in some dead goat's ass. (See what I mean about "pantomime of images?" And that's a pretty gross image, if you ask me.)

There were all the press releases issued by SCO:

For immediate release:

Smoking Crack Operation (NASCRACK: SCO) announced legal action against Microsoft Corporation for violating SCO intellectual property. The lawsuit comes on the heels of legal action targeting IBM, all the Fortune 500 companies, the governments of two world superpowers and six third world nations, millions of computer users worldwide, and God.

"Microsoft is using underground hacker software called Linux," said SCO CEO Darl McBluff. "They are using Linux to develop operating system software, codenamed Microsoft Windows, which violates our intellectual property rights. Competition from Microsoft and other companies is eating away at our sales," McBluff said. "Die fuckers!!!"

According to an SCO spokesperson, Linux violates SCO copyrights by using code developed, trademarked, copyrighted and patented by IBM. Microsoft Windows violates SCO's self-proclaimed right to eternal, perpetually increasing profits.

Experts from the Gartner Group suggested that all users of Linux, Windows, IRIX, Plan-9, CP/M, Palm OS, OS/390, UNICOS, TOPS-20, Mac OS, DOS and OS/2 immediately pay SCO a nomin

Re:The SCO story...

[Fearless Freep]

Read the rest of this comment...

Why!?!

Re:The SCO story...

[Anonymous Coward]

There should be a mod option +5 Insanely Funny

Father ??

[Aliencow]

Father of SEVEN ?

God help us!

Re:Father ??

[DataPath]

Us? No, God help his children.

Could you imagine being him and trying to teach your kids how to share and play nicely with each other?

Daddy! Jimmy took my toy! He gave it to me, and then he took it back!

Jimmy - did you assign all rights to that toy to your brother, or did just permit him to reap enjoyment from it while you're not using it?

Re:Father ??

[gsfprez]

he helped himself closer to godhood by having 7 children, actually.

don't believe me? Read the books yourself.

Re:Father ??

[Anonymous Coward]

SCO is based in Utah, per Utah law you must have 10 wives and 7 kids.

Re:Father ??

[Lifewolf]

Father of SEVEN ?

"I defy you to come up with a better name than Seven."

Re:Father ??

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it's not seven kids. Maybe he just watches too much Seinfeld and it's his son's name.

Re:Father ??

[vsprintf]

he helped himself closer to godhood by having 7 children, actually.

At the expense of his wives, poor women.

Re:Father ??

[Anonymous Coward]

Father of SEVEN ?

Just shows more of Darl's nature, I'm afraid. Mormons believe that many kids brings you closer to heaven. So Darl is just being a selfish asshole by having 7 children.

Re:Father ??

[dipipanone]

Hmmm. It seems to me that instead of bleeding the beast by suing IBM, big Darl would be doing the world a favour if he did a little more bleeding the beast in the bathroom.

The question I have

[Anonymous Coward]

What will happen to McBride after this?

This won't be forgotten as easily as his previous adventures.

Admit to Extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

Anderer compares it to "being an archaeologist given the keys to an unexplored Egyptian museum basement." He expresses surprise that IBM didn't simply purchase SCO and donate the Unix code to the public domain; it would've been much cheaper than the current legal fracas.

As I and others pointed out on groklaw when this was first posted back in an OT line, this quote shows that they admit to pulling this job in the hopes of being bought out. Blepp said the same at his university interview in Germany. Definately illegal trying to extort money this way.

Happy Trails

Re:Admit to Extortion

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to sign in, Erick.

Re:Admit to Extortion

[HenchmenResources]

first of let me just state how impressed I am with the quality of readers/posters here on Saturday, I mean we even have a funny first post that isn't filled with randome nonsensical crap or claims over being the first to post.

OK on to my second comment/question.

If I'm not mistaken, and I very well may be, didn't Novell look at placing Unix into the public domain, but because of all the legal issues and copyrights that exist for all the different parts of Unix they decided that it eather A. was not possable or B. is not worth the time, effort and legal hassle to place it into the public domain.

If this is the case, considering that IBM feels they have a strong enough case, and the funding to fight SCO. might it be a viable option to go to court and fight SCO given that if IBM wins, 1. SCO will die since no one will want to invest in them. 2. a will will add credibility to Linux and open source, something that IBM is banking a good portion of their future business on.

By fighting IBM has the opportunity to show that Linux is a great alternative to the higher priced Unix. In the long run despite the legal costs of fighting SCO, a win for IBM could be seen to be highly profitable. Not to mention the other players involved, Novell and Redhat.

Too easy ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I would faint if he took a gun and blew out his brains. Bring 'em on baby.

heheh

[Anonymous Coward]

Some particularly juicy parts are about Anderer: 'He's supercompetitive,' said one. 'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'"

Heh. If I knew that you'll pass out at the sight of blood, I'd cut the guy for you!

No thanks.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather be wired to 240 volts.

SCO Saga vs Dallas

[eamacnaghten]

Is it me or am I the only one who sees the similarity between the SCO saga and the TV show Dallas?

I mean - both are adictive - both have goodies and baddies - and both are completely weird in the plot....

I mean - Darl McBride almost looks like JR Ewing! (Well sort of).

You never know - matbe this is all part of Pamela's dream ... :)

Re:SCO Saga vs Dallas

[Spudley]

I mean - Darl McBride almost looks like JR Ewing! (Well sort of).

JR Who?

I thought E-Wing was a Star Wars fighter.

Re:SCO Saga vs Dallas

[Sunda666]

Nevermind, you were probably unborn when this show was on air.
Damn I'm getting old. ;-)

Re:SCO Saga vs Dallas

[pyrrhonist]

You never know - matbe this is all part of Pamela's dream ... :)

Please, no. I do not want to wake up to Patrick Duffy using my shower.

He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[BRock97]

He is bland, a braggart, and doesn't know when to shut up, but what he is trying to do (namely, the profit off of intellectual property) cannot be ignored. The wired article makes a great point on the last page: "Darl McBride is right about one thing: There's a big problem with Linux. <snip> The problem is that the free operating system created by Torvalds and his collaborators is poorly documented."

To be honest, if it wasn't going to be McBride, it would be someone else down the line that would exploit this little problem. Most open source advocates would hate to say it, but with this kind of question looming over Linux as an operating system, some bigger companies won't look at it in the same light as they would, say, Microsoft Windows or Sun Solaris. It is good that, not unlike a band-aid, this is getting done now so that even the big corporations can know what most of us already do; without a question or a doubt, Linux is safe to use.

I see no windmills here, but a true dragon that needs to be slayed.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Phragmen-Lindelof]

Is it not the case the MS Windows contains (or contained) code from BSD or Linux (e.g. TCP/IP stack), possibly without acknowledgement of the Regents of the University of California if BSD is being used? (I could be wrong about this.)

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[BRock97]

Is it not the case the MS Windows contains (or contained) code from BSD or Linux...

From my recollection, contained is the right word, but it has been a while. A quick Google turned up: http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/6/19/05641/7357 .

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Cylix]

If I'm recalling correctly, wasn't there a note or article they would be tracking patch history even more fervently then they already have.

So far as I know, every patch tracks back to someone in the kernel, but I'm not aware of how well a patch is documented that comes via a proxy dev. (ie dev looks it over, adjusts it and submits it).

Code in question has even been tracked back to SCO/Caldera when they were in a supportive mood.

The only thing they have ever mentioned of worth is maillist reply that it was counter-productive to research what patents kernel features might infringe upon. That's really a difficult one to work out and I'm not sure who would have the resources to do such a project.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[danmart]

How is linux not well documented?

There are a zillion books in the book stores, there are a zillion howto's on the web, there is documentation on all the download pages.

Compare that with the documentation of say, windows. Does windows document how there stuff works? No, it is a trade secret. There are a zillion how to operate and configure and fix, just like linux.

The only difference appears to be that linux ALSO provides documentation on its internals. So that qualifies as poorly documented?

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[killjoe]

I think MS and Sun have a much bigger problem with this.

Given the the codebase of all their products I think it's pretty much inevitable that there is some GPLed code somewhere in there. Lucky for them not too many people see the code and those that do probably don't know the linux codebase.

Maybe one day somebody will actually find which part of windows contains GPLed code and all hell will break loose. I would not want to be a MS shareholder on that day.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[alangmead]

if it wasn't going to be McBride, it would be someone else down the line that would exploit this little problem

One could argue that this problem has been exploited already in a smaller scale, and people involved in Linux should worry about it getting worse and worse.

In many ways, what Darl is doing feels a lot like what William Della Croce, Jr. did in 1996. That took about a year to get resolved.

First a false trademark infringement claim. Now a false copyright infringement claim. I really fear the false patent infringement claim that I expect is coming up in the future.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Feztaa]

With patents on double clicking, I would more fear an ACTUAL patent infringement claim than a false patent infringement claim. Difference being, we actually are infringing on bogus patents, whereas there is no copyright infringement at all but we're still being harrassed about it.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[pyrrhonist]

How is linux not well documented?
There are a zillion books in the book stores, there are a zillion howto's on the web, there is documentation on all the download pages.

Not that kind of documentation, you big freak!

In this case, "not well documented", refers to the record of where the source code came from and who originally wrote it.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[yppiz]

killjoe writes:

Maybe one day somebody will actually find which part of windows contains GPLed code and all hell will break loose. I would not want to be a MS shareholder on that day

If the US DOJ can't do much vs. Microsoft, why do you think finding a GPLed smoking gun in their code will hurt them?

I'm not trolling, this is an honest question. How could a GPL-oriented legal action be more harmful or threatening to Microsoft than a Federal antitrust action?

--Pat / zippy@cs.brandeis.edu

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you seriously believe commercial software is "better documented?"

It is plainly obvious that commercial software is far more full of stuff of dubious origin that open source. In particular huge amounts of code ripped off from programmers previous employer. This does not happen as much in Open Source because of the ease of detection.

In fact Open Source's "problem" is that this sort of thing is too easy to detect. This puts writing it at a serious disadvantage compared to closed source.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Pantheraleo2k3]

This is borderline redundant, but run strings on a copy of FTP.EXE, the Windows command-line FTP utility, and you'll find this: (copied from Cygwin)

Jonathan@jaguar /
$ cd /cygdrive/d/WINDOWS/system32

Jonathan@jaguar /cygdrive/d/WINDOWS/system32
$ strings ftp.exe | grep Copyright
@(#) Copyright (c) 1983 The Regents of the University of California.

There's your proof.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[nathanh]

Given the the codebase of all their products I think it's pretty much inevitable that there is some GPLed code somewhere in there. Lucky for them not too many people see the code and those that do probably don't know the linux codebase.

Maybe one day somebody will actually find which part of windows contains GPLed code and all hell will break loose. I would not want to be a MS shareholder on that day.

Similar GPL situations have already happened with NEXT whose NEXTSTEP now forms the core of MacOS X, and also with Linksys who is now owned by Cisco. I think this suggests that the most likely way Microsoft will be "caught out" by the GPL will be through a purchase of a smaller company.

I have very little doubt that there are already Microsoft products with inadvertant GPL code (and I'm not talking about their known GPL usages like SFU). But history shows that many GPL owners consider removal of the code as acceptable, and the FSF says they resolve a dozen cases per year in this discrete way. So I don't think a GPL situation will be "hell" for Microsoft.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Reteo Varala]

Well, from what had leaked so far, I really don't think I've heard of anything involving GPL code.

I mean, after all, whether the typical programmers read it or not, it seems like someone would have caught on, if there was any...

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[M. Baranczak]

I'm not really an expert on Linus' kernel development process, so maybe I'm missing something here... but from what I understand, they've ALWAYS kept track of where each file came from, and that information has always been publicly available. And their system might have problems, but compare it to companies that provide NO public documentation of their source code or its provenance.

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[d34thm0nk3y]

well, two down, one to go, before you know it we might end up legitimate. But where is the fun in that?

searching for quote....

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[d34thm0nk3y]

there it is:

well, well, well, if it isn't my old friend, underrage drinking....

Son, if we dont enforce the drinking age the excitement of sneaking around to get wasted might disappear forever! Do you want that on your shoulders pal?

Clone High

Re:He Might Be Passe, But What He Is Doing Isn't

[Anonymous Coward]

More to the point - the GPL *can't* be used to require source code to be opened.

If you put GPL'd code in your product, and distribute it in violation of the GPL, you have not broken a contract - you have simply violated copyright.

There is no court in the world with the power to order a GPL violator to release their proprietary code. The copyright holder might permit you to release your source code in lieu of damages, but the most they can demand is that you remove the offending code and pay monetary damages.

Sigh

[Anonymous Coward]

You nerds have created your own scandal that nobody else cares about. Please stop acting like your scandal is something the public cares about. It's not.

Can I Supersize That?

[EtherealSys]

here and i thought they only sold McBrides in third world countries.

Re:Can I Supersize That?

[tiny69]

I'd rather not have my McBride supersized, thankyou.

Re:Can I Supersize That?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd rather not have my McBride supersized, thankyou.

Can I just get a couple parts of my McBride supersized?

last paragraph sums it up

[mabu]

There may indeed be a holy war raging, but SCO joined it out of desperation, not in deference to a higher calling. The very day that McBride took the job as CEO in 2002, the company, then a friendly Linux reseller known as Caldera Systems, received a delisting notice from Nasdaq - despite having done a reverse four-for-one stock split just three months before. It then spent $4 million in a stock buyback to boost the price, which left the business with less than four months' worth of cash in the bank. Caldera's Linux operation was spending $4 for every dollar in revenue it earned. McBride faced a nearly hopeless situation. One of his first moves was to change the name of the company to the SCO Group and craft a strategy to use its ownership of Unix as a legal weapon against the Linux community.

When your company is dying, change its name and start suing people. Yep, SCO is very much an influential leader in the technology industry. No wonder so many people want to use their products.

IP and patents

[secondsun]

Digital IP is in such a fucked shape right now that I can actually see these idiot winning.

A few days ago a Managment friend of mine who used to be CS and I were talking about IP and patents. Suprisingly we agreed that the system is out of whack.

For example, if I built a washing mahcine that got clothes clean by rinsing them every 5 minutes I can get a patent for it. Then if he takes my design but instead of every 5 minutes his rinses every 3 minutes and also reverses the spin it is a new design and i cant sue him. Now lets go to the current digital state. If I made a program that defragmented a disk drive using algorithim x I can get a patent. Now if he dreates a defrag program that uses algothim y I can sue him and win even though our programs are as different as the two earlier washing mahcines.

Secondsun

PS:(I know a defrag program is not the best analogy but it demonstrates my point)

Re:IP and patents

[gatzke]

There was something about a refrigerator maker patenting the idea of shelves in the door. They got the patent on an *idea* and completely dominated the market for years.

Kenmore or maytag or someone. Totally ran the competition out of bidness.

Not quite like your 3 minute 5 minute washing machine, but similar. If you have a novel idea, you patent it in a general way so you dominate the market. That is what patents are about. Crazy stuff. Some seem silly, and you could have patented that,so why didn;t you?

Re:IP and patents

[LMCBoy]

It's my understanding that it isn't possible to patent ideas, only specific implementations. This is because of the unfair anticompetitive behavior that would result, as in your example. So did this one slip through USPTO somehow? Why were the competitors unable to have the patent invalidated?

Re:IP and patents

[gatzke]

Maybe the specific implementation of "shelves in the door" was specific / general enough to give advantage while allowing the limited monopoly.

The idea is novel, and no one else can implement shleves in a fridge door without impending the existing patent. Maybe drawers would be novel, but not shelves. Crazy.

why hire somebody like this?

[belmolis]

What I find curious is why a company would hire somebody with McBride's background. Suppose you're the board of what is now SCO. You've got a declining proprietary Unix business and need somebody who can turn the company around. Presumably you'd look for somebody with a combination of good management skills and the combination of technical and market knowledge to figure out what direction the company should move in. McBride has none of this. From his record it looks like he wasn't much good as a manager. IKON fired him for his M&A work, which doesn't suggest that he has good market sense. He clearly has no understanding of the technology. It looks like the only thing he did well was when he was Novell's guy in Japan. I don't see why he would be attractive for SCO unless the board planned an IP scam from the outset and wanted somebody with experience in that area. If that's the case, it isnt the case that obtaining value from their IP was McBride's idea and that they discovered the alleged infringement after he came on board.

Re:why hire somebody like this?

[HenchmenResources]

More evidence of this is that the article states that when the stock was up around the $20 mark all the executives lined up to sell, except McBride.

Re:why hire somebody like this?

[vsprintf]

What I find curious is why a company would hire somebody with McBride's background.

If you're a dying company in Lindon, Utah with no money, you put an ad in the Nickel Shopper for a CEO. Darl knocks the meadow muffins off his boots, walks down the block, and applies for the job. End of story.

Re:why hire somebody like this?

[Anonymous Coward]

This should be taken as a warning especially to slashdot people. They are clearly quite happy to take you to court. When they are finished with linux mayhap they will start with /. readers who have voiced libelous and defamatory comments.

Ok maybe thats a bit harsh but it wouldn't surprise me to see a few people with a law suit. PJ (one of my heroes) should be cautious.

Oh that's nice

[chrisgeleven]

'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

He really seems like a nice guy...honestly...I'm not joking...

Re:Oh that's nice

[Dhalka226]

Hmm, I wonder...

Excuse me, Mr. Anderer? You know what would really make me faint? Somebody sticking a pen straight through their jugular!

*waits*

Damn.

Dammit we need a +100 Funny for the parent...

[seanvaandering]

absolutely awesome, Ive never actually fallen off my chair before from laughing!

Commission on the Baystar Deal

[DitchTheUserGuide]

"...the hubris and combativeness of some of SCO's key players would soon make it all unravel. Anderer brazenly lobbied SCO for a commission on the Baystar deal, on the grounds that his contacts with Microsoft helped land the investment." - And this was after the fact! I assume Anderer's next move would be a suit against SCO claiming those M$ friends proprietary, thus making them liable for paying up. Moral - Hire an attorney to prove that your friends are closed source.

Not Unfounded, *UNPROVEN*

[NigelJohnstone]

The wired story says that the claims that Microsoft invested in SCO via Baystar are unfounded. No, they're *unproven*.

Just to remind you, the details of SCOs claims were outed by CT magazine in AUGUST 20th 2003:

http://www.lemis.com/grog/SCO/code-comparison.ht ml

At this point it was clear SCO claims were junk. Not least because SCO story changed repeatedly, eventually claiming it was an example of code *like* the code shown by CT but not the actual code itself.

LATER, in OCTOBER Baystar & RBC made the completely irrational investment. At this time it was clear SCO wouldn't prevail and their investiment simply kept them going.

http://news.com.com/SCO+gets+%2450+million+inves tm ent/2100-7344_3-5092702.html?tag=nl

So a claim that Baystar did it because it believed SCO would make money from the lawsuits doesn't sound plausible.

Since then we had the Opera settlement, where Microsoft paid Opera 12.75 million and a term of the deal seemed to have been that they keep the money secret (only revealed by a leak).

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+behind+$12+million +p ayment+to+Opera/2100-1032_3-5218163.html?tag=nefd. lede

So this seems to show that indeed Microsoft can and does hide money payments.

bastards

[Anonymous Coward]

i HATE those god damn litigious bastards.

Re:bastards

[Anonymous Coward]

Hehe, the parent AC is realy insightfull, try being luck on google with those words and see what you get :)

Get Into My Pockets

[Dynamic1]

The article states: Every Linux user, SCO concludes, owes it money. Where do I send my check?

Re:Get Into My Pockets

[Anonymous Coward]

paypal@slackware.com

It's all a game...

[Chordonblue]

...to these macho golf-loving, ex-frat boys. QUOTE: "But we think the crowd is going to get very quiet when we put some points on the board..." Boy you'd love that wouldn't you? Kind of gives you a thrill to the crotch you didn't get losing at football.

First of all Darl, you have to PLAY to win. Constantly appealing to the judges for a decision doesn't score you 'points' in anyone's book. Why not simply produce a better product and instead of bitching about OSS - STOP USING IT in your company's software. Oh that's right, you did - brilliant move on making your software even LESS attractive...

Secondly, if you think that the OSS community will get LESS vocal with some sort of win on your side, you're in for a rude awakening.

No Darl, what we see is YOU and your lawyers trying to make away with what a community as a whole has contributed to for years. My only hope is that when SCO is folded into a legitimate organization and your legal barratry is ended, you will personally be held for proscecution.

C'mon Darl, shoot off your mouth like you used to - Groklaw needs some more dumb-ass quotes...

Re:It's all a game...

[Ohreally_factor]

Why not simply produce a better product and instead of bitching about OSS - STOP USING IT in your company's software. Oh that's right, you did - brilliant move on making your software even LESS attractive...

But SCO is still using OSS, even if they are no longer openly distributing Linux. For instance, they are still distributing SAMBA.

Re:It's all a game...

[Chordonblue]

Are they? Dunno. I know they got rid of GCC and a few other useful things...

{Checks feature list}

Yeah, you are right. Unbelievable. They might as well go all the way and eliminate all OSS stuff - it probably won't affect sales of the product either way.

Companies tend to avoid doing business with those who sue their customers. I don't know, seems silly somehow... :P

The Linux Show

[coolfrood]

The Linux Show had an interesting feature this week about SCO and the Linux editor, Steve Vaughan from Eweek presented his view of Darl McBride after having met him multiple times since the whole SCO issue started. According to him, Darl McBride is an achiever, and if you can, for a second, believe in what he's doing, like he does, you will make amazed at his dedication. According to him, McBride will not give up until the last vestiges of SCO are thrown out of court. He will accept anything other than a defeat in the court. It is an interesting show to listen to, give it a shot

But everyone else has their own reality TV show. .

[WinterpegCanuck]

. . even Crocodile Dundee has his own. I admit this is not as riviting as fox's new "Judge Judy - The RIAA files" and "Look out!! He's Suing right at us", a southpark spinoff with Johny Cochrane and his chewbacca defense, but should be hitting the primetime slots soon enough.

Wrong, wrong, wrong. But...

[ThisIsFred]

Warning: Invective ahead. This post is rated 'R'.

The article contains about a billion inaccuracies, but I'm hoping that at least McBride's quotes haven't been altered, or this fact for that matter: Caldera was spending $4 for every $1 it made. Think about that for a second. Redhat is making money from selling services on top of GNU/Linux. IBM is making money from selling services on top of GNU/Linux. But, Caldera is losing money.

Why is that? Could it be that Caldera's business model was boxing and and selling software through regular retail channels? Could it be that Caldera wasted a lot of development effort trying to take ownership of a product that was mostly GNU (read: industry standard) at the core by attempting to build proprietary extensions on it? I've reserved personal judgment about McBride up until this point: He's a shithead, pure and simple. No one will ever be able to convince him of that, but perhaps SCO shareholders could convince him that he's not working for fucking Microsoft, so that business model doesn't apply to his company. Attention dumbfuck McBride: Pick a business model that's profitable!

Let's imagine for a moment some other famous CEO reacted the same way when the status quo began to crumble. Let's take Andy Grove on example. When Intel was losing ground the Japanese memory manufacturers, did they fold up shop, cancel R&D, and refuse change while suing both makers and buyers or foreign memory chips? Sure they dabbled in some protectionist tactics, but eventually they just changed their focus to something that the Japanese could not readily produce cheaply in mass quantities.

I'd predicted last year that SCO's purpose was not a stock pump-and-dump scheme, but an attempt destroy open source, specifically those projects that fall under the GPL; An attack on the common infrastructure of the "enemy". The article contains, in McBride's own words, an admission of such.

Re:Wrong, wrong, wrong. But...

[Anonymous Coward]

Not to dismiss what you wrote, but you have insulted fecal matter everywhere:

> He's a shithead

Re:Wrong, wrong, wrong. But...

[0x0d0a]

Darl wasn't at the helm when Caldera was trying to be a legitimate Linux business. You're thinking of the famously-named Ransom Love, who was running Caldera at the time.

Darl is strictly a litigious bastard, and stuck with trying to extort money from the rest of the Linux world.

Re:Wrong, wrong, wrong. But...

[ThisIsFred]

No, but McBride came in at a critical juncture. Clearly the solution was to discard the bad business model. But as the article shows, his concern was to exact some type of fast cash from the IP (in a "related field") through threat of litigation, not to build a lasting business model that would benefit the stockholders, employees and customers. In essence, his profession is barratry.

IBM not OSS hero

[fermion]

I find it fascinating that IBM is now the defender of free software and Sun and MS are the defender of closed software. This is a dangerous oversimplification.

First, what MS is prompting is software licensing, not closed software. They want everyone to pay a fee to gain the privilege to use a piece of software, and in the process agree to certain things that will insure a future cash-flow. All MS wants is money in exchange for software. This was somewhat of a new idea. The software itself was the product. It was no longer part of a service. If you wanted service, that will cost extra. It extended this concept through licensing with third parties. The purchaser of a system was now entitled to no MS support. The fee only covered the use of the software. Closed source or whatever is just a means to that end. One advantage to this is that hardware, software, and services are sold separately, which creates a confusion about responsibility and minimizes support costs.

IBM, OTOH, sells services. They want to sell you the hard and soft ware as well, but they are a solutions provider. As far as I know, they always have been. Obviously back in the 70's there was no software, so they had to write it. This worked until MS told everyone that MS could provide the same service for a lesser price, which was more or less a lie, but whatever. Now IBM is just trying to make the business model work. They can put their solutions around whatever OS. They just want to sell the solutions. It turns out that the best way they can gain market-share back from MS is by supported OSS. MS really has no defense against this because they have no reputation as a service provider.

Sun is just trying to survive. The settlement is part of that survival and cannot be taken as evidence of anything. Sun has been abused as much as SCO. They have had as much technology 'misappropriated'. Unlike SCO, they are not carpet bombing the industry. They are working hard to create a competetive product.

Additionally, there are often question of why IBM did not buy out SCO. My belief is that we cannot assume they did not try. Until recently a majority of SCO stock was held by insiders, and much of the rest by institutional investors. I believe this means that it would have been very hard for IBM to just buy a block of stock at market prices, then go in and replace the board. They would have had to negotiate with the board, and one assumes that the board would have laughed at a 20 million, or even 80 million, dollar offer, which was the SCO market cap.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[geoff lane]

Though we don't know for sure, most people think that IBM has decided to destroy SCO in the courts in order to discourage any others who may think that it's a good business idea to sue IBM in the hope that they'll get bought just to put an end to the irritation.

IBM has a reputation to keep here - to be accused of theft and contract irregularities and not to prove the charges as false would be a very bad business move.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[jesterzog]

Additionally, there are often question of why IBM did not buy out SCO. My belief is that we cannot assume they did not try. Until recently a majority of SCO stock was held by insiders, and much of the rest by institutional investors.

I don't know if you saw it on page 3 of the article or not, but even Anderer appears to've commented that he was expecting IBM to buy out SCO:

Anderer compares it to "being an archaeologist given the keys to an unexplored Egyptian museum basement." He expresses surprise that IBM didn't simply purchase SCO and donate the Unix code to the public domain; it would've been much cheaper than the current legal fracas.

He might be making things up, but his statement does seem to imply that it wouldn't have been too difficult for IBM to buy SCO if it had actually wanted to. I don't think anyone from outside can definitely say why IBM didn't buy SCO, but personally I'm glad that they didn't -- to buy SCO would be giving it credibility.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[Anonymous Coward]

This hasn't stopped MS from making lots of money with a bad reputation, so why would IBM worry about it? IBM is doing this to prevent any other companies from suing them about intellectual property, and having to spend millions in defending multiple lawsuits related to Linux.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[dmaxwell]

In the FOSS world, reputation counts for a quite a bit more. Code trees and user bases live or die based on reputation. Look at XFree86. A few months ago, they were the canonical implementation of X11. One bad licensing move later and they're blowing away like a fart in the wind.

If IBM truly intends to use FOSS as a vehicle to (legitimately) make money then they need the trust of the developers as well as their customers.

All that and SCO's accusations are not to be tolerated. IBM also has to maintain credibility in the business world. SCO's accusations are not to be tolerated and trying to interfere the AIX business is completely beyond the pale. They got between mother bear and her cubs there.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[criscooil]

...IBM has decided to destroy SCO in the courts in order to discourage any others...

I've been hearing this over and over for a long time. It always sounded convincing to me, so I never questioned it, until I saw a thoughtful comment on Linux Weekly News. And its this: The list of people or companies who own (or claim) significant portions of anything significant like Unix, who could try to sue IBM for similar trespass, is very very short. Now if it was a patent-infringement, then I would agree that IBM would be trying to set an example to head off a possible stampede. So while I agree that IBM probably is trying to reduce SCOG to dust, its probably not for that reason.

IBM has a reputation to keep here

Now you're talking. This seems to me much more likely.

Re:IBM not OSS hero

[kbahey]

I think that looking at anything in oversimplistic terms, black-vs-white, good-vs-evil ("They hate the USA because they hate freedom") is often a mistake.

The world is a complex place, and only simple minds need simple categorizations.

For those who try to probe and think and then come to a conclusion.

Having said that, there are things that Sun did that makes it not popular with the Open Source community. Their recent agreement with Microsoft to drop the law suits and settle for some money is seen as a sell out.

Also, the conflicting messages about hardware will become free, yet they want to open source Solaris seem to add to the confusion, to say the least. Also the mixed signals on open sourcing Java adds to the mele.

Sun used to be more liked in the UNIX and Open Source world, but their recent actions do not help at all with their fast sinking image.

IBM on the other hand is helping Open Source with their support for Linux in many areas. From funding development, to promoting Linux to customers, ...etc. All this could be for their own selfish purposes, and not altruistic ones (remember they are a business, not a charity), but the result is more promotion and use of open source.

As for Microsoft, they are also a selfish business. What bothers us open source advocates is that the techniques they use (monopoly, exclusive licensing, killing off competition by giving away equivalent products for free and bundled with their OS which was exclusively licensed in the first place, closed file formats and APIs that keep changing, insecure products, ...etc). They leave little to be liked.

So, let us not be bigots and paint this company as "evil" and the other as "good". Let us remember that today's ally can be tomorrow's foe. This is life, and things change. Let us look at the facts and then come to conclusions, taking both the present and the past into account, and not just one or the other.

More Information...

[NEOtaku17]

On Darl McBride, SCO, and the SCO vs. IBM lawsuit.

Re:More Information...

[jimicus]

On Karma Whores.

It's like I told him.

[Lochin Rabbar]

The sight of road kill makes me want to vomit.

Article Summary

[ThisIsFred]

Summary:

McBride and Anderer are two business world vagrants that made their millions from aquisition bonuses. Neither is particularly adept at actually running a business. The SCO situation blew up in their faces. The end.

Interesting coincidence (to me at least)

[Sivar]

I worked for IQorder.com at the time that it was apparently sued (Sorry, "asked to pay") by McBride's patent friends. This guy gets around.
Suing random startups over BS patents and now suing Linux users over BS claims.
McBride of Frankenstein and Senator "Let's let the RIAA to hack file sharers legally" Hollings are some of the highest profile Mormons in their little church. I hope they get excommunicated (but then, they would lose all that tithing).

The scary thing is that McBride has seven kids. I hope that being a prick isn't genetic. I really hope that his kids see what kind of human being their dad is and don't follow in his footsteps.

Re:Interesting coincidence (to me at least)

[hendersj]

Is it Senator Hollings, or Senator Hatch to whom you refer? Hatch has been in the news recently with his copyright modification bill that would effectively reverse the Sony Betamax suit and remove fair use from consumers' reach.

Re:Interesting coincidence (to me at least)

[Salo2112]

You are thinking of Senator Orin Hatch. Ernest Hollings is one of the RIAA's main bitches, but Hatch is the Mormon one.

Re:Interesting coincidence (to me at least)

[Grishnakh]

Yep, Hollings is from South Carolina, not exactly a Mormon stronghold.

Unfortunately...

[Anonymous Coward]

If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.

Unfortunately in American business this considered a desirable trait. Especially if him cutting himself will make stock holders money. Remember American businessmen learn their business skills from Sun Tzu and Genghis Kahn. Business is war in America. It's sad really. No more accurately its pathetic.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Esion Modnar]

Sun Tzu

To those wondering, author of "The Art of War," written long time ago. Probably worth reading at least once in your life.

Re:Unfortunately...

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer Zap Brannigans "Big Book of War".

OTOH...

[mangu]

...if Linus had been as strict in dealing with his collaborators as the GNU people are, well, then maybe Linux would be as advanced as the GNU/Hurd is today. The fact that Linux advanced so much so quickly with so few resources is a good argument for IP law reform. After all, when one comes to think about it, selling proprietary software is no guarantee of success for a company. Microsoft, Oracle, and CA seem to be doing fine, but the same cannot be said of Corel, Borland, or Lotus. Lotus seems to be an example of what is considered the best that selling proprietary software can achieve for a company: being taken over by one of the big companies.

Voodoo you know who.

[Snaggy]

....and for those who wish to really stick it to Darrel, may I present
The SCO-doo Doll, with bonus McBride of SCO-doo! :-)

SCO sold Linux under GPL, how can they resind it?

[Anonymous Coward]

SCO/Caldera SOLD Linux kernel under GPL, how can they resind it now?

The very day that McBride took the job as CEO in 2002, the company, then a friendly Linux reseller known as Caldera Systems, ...

I rememder seeing Caldera Linux in Compusa. (For some reason, I seem to remember reading it was based on Debian, of all distributions. Maybe I'm wrong here, tho'.) Comes in a shrink-wrap box, screenshots on the cover, manuals, cdroms, same as any other distribution. And thus , like any other distribution, has the GPL , and all the sourse code with it (presumably-- I don't have it in my possession)

What I'm getting at, is the very company in question, SCO, sold the product under those terms. So how can they now go back on it?

You could imagine a defense lawyer asking McBride in court: Is it not the case that your company sold the product 'Linux' under those very terms, the GPL? And, thus, those customers have the right, under the terms you sold it under, to copy and distribute it, with likewise GPL applying to those copies?

Am I being redundant?

THEY sold it (including the kernel and src) under GPL, so GPL has to apply. And if they didn't sell it under GPL, under what license did they sell it? And can't the kernel copyright holder sue Caldera/SCO for changing the kernel license?

it's all rediculous.

IBM funneled money to Novel?

[mikefe]

Does anyone have any articles for this?

Re:IBM funneled money to Novel?

[PizzaFace]

Google's first match on "IBM Novell investment": http://www.novell.com/news/press/archive/2004/03/p r04029.html

Cutting through the confusion

[SEE]

He expresses surprise that IBM didn't simply purchase SCO and donate the Unix code to the public domain; it would've been much cheaper than the current legal fracas.

It is always a temptation to a lawyer-armed corporation,
To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We filed a suit last night -- we are quite prepared to fight,
Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
And then you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation to a rich corporation,
To puff and look important and to say:--
"Though we know we should defeat you, it would cost too much to beat you.
We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we've proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptations in the path of corporations,
For fear they should succumb and go astray,
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
You will find it better policy to says:--

"We never pay any one Dane-geld,
No matter how trifling the cost,
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
Corporations that play it are lost!"

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Regrettably, very few college graduates seem to have Kippled these days.

Hopefully the next Kipling to describe SCO will either be "Danny Deever", or the one that ends in

"And when you're left wounded on Afghanistan's plains

And the lawyers come out to cut up what remains..."

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

Shadowbearer raises a beer to you for that wonderful and insightful filk, and goes back into treatment... er... lurk-mode. Damn slashdot anyway :)

Salut!

SB
(Knowing some filkers of note that I do, do you mind if I pass that on - with attribution, of course, mind you! ;)

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[SEE]

(Knowing some filkers of note that I do, do you mind if I pass that on - with attribution, of course, mind you! ;)

Go right ahead; I'm flattered.

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[Reziac]

Oh there you are :) /. timelimit cut into our last conversation...

Filk be cool. This be one fine addition to the repertoire!

I first heard the root phrase, "Once you've paid the danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane" cited as a British proverb ca. 800 A.D. (and have often thus quoted it here), but one suspects it goes back far beyond that. Funny how little things change over the centuries... companies like SCO are now the roving marauders who take whatever they want from anyone not sufficiently well-defended.

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

I wondered what had happened - wasn't keeping track of the days. Ah well :)

This *was* a truly marvelous filk, and I've sent it to some friends who have some infamy at filking on their own. I don't know if you are an Honor Harrington fan, but if you like Gilbert&Sullivan, you might enjoy reading these filks. :)

I first heard the root phrase, "Once you've paid the danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane" cited as a British proverb ca. 800 A.D. (and have often thus quoted it here), but one suspects it goes back far beyond that. Funny how little things change over the centuries... companies like SCO are now the roving marauders who take whatever they want from anyone not sufficiently well-defended.

I'm sure that the concept probably goes back to the beginnings of religion, at least ;) I really know little about the history of the phrase however.
I'd say, rather, that *men* like Darl are the roving marauders...

Oh, if you dig back in our last conversation a bit, you'll find an email address embedded in there (it's also in my, um, last journal comment *cough* ;-D ) so in case we get cutoff again, there's another way to continue...

Speaking of our last conversation, do you know of any way to deal with a cat who is affectionate and hyper beyond the point of tolerance - "pest behavior"? Bandit is a great cat, but he is also driving every member - human and feline - of this household batty! I'm not quite sure how to deal with him at this point and am hoping he'll grow out of it.

Cheers!
SB

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[Reziac]

Yeah, I didn't have time for Answers That Require Thought that day, got shoved aside for a bit, by the time I found the link in my inbox again it was too late. Oh well. Only "important" thing I had to add was take that "hybrid info" site with BUCKETS of salt... I wandered around a bit, and seldom have I seen so much marginally or outright misinformation and/or ignorance so well concealed by occasional facts and barrels of speculation. But if you start from Rez's Law ("Rare breeds attract crackpots") and consider that ALL "purebred cats" (essentially, selection for colours and/or various defects) are extremely rare as the total population goes...

I don't recall where I first saw the danegeld warning, but it's been decades. As to SCO, figure that Darl alone (speaking of crackpots!!) couldn't lead the marauders unless at least some of the other subchiefs are ready and willing to go along with it, so one has to figure that SCO's leadership is pretty well rotten across the board.
I found the stuff on his buddy (whose name I already forget) interesting, and someone here who cut the crap and said he's an outright sociopath, IMO got it right.

You gotta feel sorry for Darl's kids. Even if they didn't inherit his less-sterling traits, they sure don't have much of an example to live by. Of course, there's another cogent saying.. "No man is a total waste; he can always serve as a bad example."

As to the overwhelming cat -- halfgrown cats are sometimes like that, high-energy and just SURE you want to play the same way they do. Usually they're nice cats once mature, but meanwhile you wonder whatever possessed you to get a cat in the first place. Not much you can do other than actively discourage aspects that you don't want to become longterm habit, actively train for what you DO want to become habit, and wait for 'em to get past the teenager stage. Dogs and kids go thru it too. :/

Darl never outgrew it. :)

Honor Harrington doesn't do a thing for me (tho someday I may have to buy that volume with the rest all included on CDROM, just on G.P. -- what a fantastic concept!) but those are some dandy filks, especially "My Fair Navy"!!

("And there's only one latrine in all of U-A-C!")

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

WRT to the hybrid site; I agree. It's on my ToDo list to see if I can't find some independent correlation on the South Dakota stories; I live here, and there should be some info in the libraries around here. Could be a big project, but my curious is piqued.

Agreed on Darl and Co. Fortunately his kind aren't in the majority, but it's amazing how much damage a minority can do, ain't it? :)

Bandit will be the fourth cat I've raised from a kitten; and he's by *far* the most lunatic, er, hyperactive, of the lot. As I said before, tho, I suspect he's going to be quite the cat once grown. He shows every sign of being highly intelligent and aware of human nuances such as humor, i.e. deliberately goofing off for the camera, etc. He does seem to be finally learning what "No!" means, fortunately *grin*

re HH volume (War of Honor) the CD has a lot of great stuff on it in addition to the Honor stories - it's free to distribute, too, so if you'd like a copy, they are available (ya just gotta love Jim Baen and the direction he's taking Baen books - and Baen and the Baen's Bar Forums are attracting some really great people. If you get into that sort of thing hang around in the bar a bit - the interface sucks but the conversations are superb). I think it has a bittorrent link. There are many good books on the CD in addition to quite a bit of good art; and there's another free CD out there too - it's name escapes me.

Yeah, Jon is quite a talented filker. Myself, I'm not really very good at it, but it sure is fun! Too bad most of my filks are X-rated :)

Cheers!
SB

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[Reziac]

Vaguely near the nominal topic: what if Darl were to take over Baen Books tomorrow?? What about all the freebies they've already given out? It would surely make for "interesting times"!! and the situation wouldn't really be that much different -- after all, Caldera was freely offering its linux and sources, before Darl & Co. came along. (And for a while afterward.)

I'll have to acquire those thar' Baen CDs. Haven't looked into the Bar yet; at 26k max (thanks, Verizon!) stuff like that is just too painfully slow.

If something sets me off, sometimes I'll spit out a partial filky thing, but other than the Oscar Meyer rejingle, don't think I have any finished products out there. I do write SF, tho (space opera sorta off in Bujold's end of the genre).

Likely we should go off to email (see my website for email links) before we get modded down to somewhere below dirt, but meanwhile...

My thought on the various "hybrids" mentioned -- I don't think they know what they're talking about. If it were that easy to do, ALL the wild feline species that have any contact at all would have long since homogenized into a single species, along with all the feral cat colonies in the world. I think more likely, feralized domestic cats have, over a space of a couple thousand years, been selected toward bigger/stronger types (better suited to survival), which are now being regionally mistaken as separate wild species by the tinfoil hatted feline fancier brigade. IOW, they're doing the equivalent of mistaking Great Danes and Pugs as different species, just because they look so different, and failing to realise that it's not at all unusual for a given species to have a very large variation in normal size (300% or so), especially if their home ranges are ecologically very different.

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

Re: filks; I mostly parody current top 40 crap; generally when I'm in good company and feeling mellow (meaning good dark beer :).

SF: I published a couple of short stories back in my college days in a obscure and long-defunct local college fanrag; one of them came to the attention of the editors at Asimov's FSF magazine but was never published (and they never returned the manuscript either, darnit!) I also published (if one can call it that) a short on a Star Wars fanfic site that got some good email comments, several years ago. I cringe when I reread it now, however ;)

I have several projects that are on the slow burner; but they've been stalled for a while. Two of them are time-travel detective style stories that got a long ways before becoming so complicated I couldn't sort them out. Damn, *finishing* a story and re-reading/editing it is a lot harder than writing the bulk of it in the first place!

Doesn't help, either, that work and work-related study (and slashdot, alas) consume entirely too much of my time nowadays; I *should* be concentrating on my work studies - mostly electrical and plumbing codes and HowDoUDoIt; after work I'm mostly so fried I need to get away, and slashdot is where I go, and, well, nevermind, doh :)

Anyway, later, I'm already behind tonite...vacation cometh soon, thank Bog!

Cheers!
SB

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[Reziac]

I'm an extrapolator, rather than creating from scratch. But get me started and gods know what will fall out of my brain. Most of my SF "Epic" was writ whilst cleaning kennels... the brain had nothing better to do. By now the main character is much like the filk character who ran away from his author and refused to come out of the tree... I have no control over him at all!! :) Been stalled a long time, tho, cuz I lost my wise reader and I just *don't* write without feedback. On another tentacle, I'm a damned good editor, if I do say so myself. Had some poetry pubbed years ago. There's a little of it up on my Sandpit site.

Maybe we could send Darl back in time... to, say, when microbes ruled the earth. [evil grin]

Slashdot is a timesink, for sure. So are usenet, mailing lists, and all their kin. I need a clone.. got your email, remind me if I don't get to it later. Brain is about fried for today. What's a "vacation"? How do I get one??

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

Wow...that's the word I've been looking for (extrapolator)! Ditto here; but I could never describe it well.

I wonder what it means that most of the somewhat good scifi I composed I did so during Senior optics classes circa '88 *snerk* :) Maybe that's why my interview with Meade didn't go off so well back in '89...

No, no, it's a *good* thing when the main character (or any other one) is out of control! That's when the story writes itself! Just leaves you to clean up the inconsistencies, but hey, what's a writer good for, anyway? Why do you writers honestly think that you really come up with these ideas?

(Note: Above paragraph written by Basrack Sheir, Sr. Timeline Troubleshooter - pay no attention to this poor shrick pounding the keyboard!)

Ditto here wrt to editing - or so I'm told - have been helping as much as I can with some friends (Jon being one) in their stories. However it's always *much* easier to critique constructively than it is to construct in the first place - particularly when it's hard to find something that hasn't already been done. Sigh(!)

Sending Darl back in time...How about the original asteroid bombardment, 400m years worth, but give him unlimited regeneration and place him on the surface. Hmmm...yes.

--

Vacation? I don't know, can one buy one on Ebay? I'm getting mine courtesy of a partially torn tendon in my foot that refuses to start healing - which means I'll be spending it mostly lying around with an icepack rather than doing something interesting like climbing Devils Tower (one of my summer plans that has been deep-sixed after much planning, dammit!!!! *&$#%&^%$#!!!!) Four whole days until the call of the customer brings me back...yay.

Whether or not I catch up on the housework and other TD list crap around here is becoming increasingly irrelevant at this point. I 'plan to' spend my lying around time drinking beer with the laptop, two cats, and catching up on the multitude of movies I've not yet seen. But I'm sure that Murphy will intervene there - he always does. That Rat Bastard. ;) But....he can't have my Bud Lite! :)

Way, way back, when I used to isolate myself in my apartment, with nothing more than Turbo Pascal, me, and a job that I could ignore on my off time... well shit. Shit.

At least the cats will be happy. I rarely spend a lot of playtime with them anymore. *guilt*

I'm looking forward much more to my SO finishing her job and coming back here in August. The last 10 months have been damned lonely.

She'll say "Whiner! Quitcher bitching and go do something!"

More and more, I find myself missing my pre-internet days (not pre-computer, hacking Apples, Ataris, and the IBM PC was fun). But the internet can truly swallow one, especially monkey-curious types :( Those who think that geeks nowadays are *anti-social* do not understand the true magnitude of learning computers where the only form of communication between geeks was 300baud@~50cents/minute growing up in a little dinky farmtown where nobody knew WTF a computer WAS save a couple people. Generational...pass it on. :)

Anti-social, my ass. It's altogether too EASY nowadays... /rant

Bah&Humbug, even. :) Rambling again...I hate it when that happens. ;)

Cheers!
SB
(not burnt out but close... too damned close)

Re:Cutting through the confusion

[shadowbearer]

Ugh. Bite your tongue! That first sentence is just plain ugly, ugly, ugly. Fortunately I think that given how long Baen has been Baen, and the spirit of the company (and holders) that that particular scenario has the odds of happening of a quart of Ben&Jerry's surviving in the photosphere of the sun long enough to be eaten. Certainly not while Jim is alive. *shudder*

Actually the Bar *can* be painfully slow, even to lucky individuals like me with 2Mb/s cable access; there was a discussion there a couple years ago in which it was revealed that the Bar runs as a single-threaded perl script; I don't know if they've updated it (been lax in reading there lately :) but it's still pretty slow. Several people suggested back then that they go to slashcode, but concerns over the interface Look&Feel ruled it out, IIRC. Personally I think slashcode would work better, but I'm biased :)
I'll grant that the Bar has been around for a long time, and sometimes it's better to leave a good thing that semi-works alone. Anyway, you might be interested in the fact that there is a Bujold thread and Lois posts there on a regular basis ;-) (also a Bujold nut here; well, a Miles Vorkosigan nut, anyway. Damn but that lady can write!)

WRT to mods; I suspect most of the mods are off fwapping to newer articles. At least it seems safe to be this deep and old. (Speak and ye shall receive, nave! ;-D ) In any case, I do also know of a private newsgroup with a cat/critter discussion thread - it's not very active right now, but I trust and respect the people there (it's invitation only) but I think I could wrangle an invitation for you, if you are interested. Good talks like these are always fun with more interested and intelligent participants, I think.

I'm going to have to think on your last paragraph a bit. I think it's a bit more complicated than that, but I can't quite put my thinking into a logical form right now. However, let me ask you this question(s): Do you think it's possible that Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals (or any other ancient - X*100k years - species) could interbreed? Why isn't it possible that different species (domesticated cats, circa ~10k BC(?) and their wild cousins X removed - could interbreed under certain circumstances? I think the interbreeding issue over the many offshoots of the feline families is a lot more complicated; mainly because I think that the genetic factors regarding interbreeding are much more complicated than just species seperation. IANAGeneticist, however :)
Suppose that, rather than being a cardinal rule across the various species, interbreeding can only happen between some linked subsets of the species in question, and the offshoots are mostly sterile, but not always. Wouldn't that forestall the homogenization?
I don't know if I'm expressing this right, can you see what I'm suggesting?

I'll admit right now that I'm nowhere near as knowledgeable on these things as you are, so I'll be interested in your comments if you have time. (Email, aye; echoed this to what seemed the most likely email link :) - I, um, took liberties with the subject)

Cheers!
SB

Caldera in the printing industry

[mikefe]

I work for a company that has Ikon printers. They use Sun Solaris as their print "controllers" that rip the data (postscript, pcl, etc) and send it to the printers.

We almost got a "TCO Box" that connects an OCe printer with native Bus & Tag (old IBM mainframe technology) to a TCP/IP network. It ran Caldera Linux. Which they're in the process of switching to Suse (though, that's not set in stone).

One interesting thing is that in the price breakdown the "Linux operating system" was $700! I asked what type it was, but never got a response. I wouldn't have known it was Caldera unless I was there to see the tech boot it up and configure it.

While I'm happy to see any company see the light of Linux, it's too bad they succumed to the dim light that Caldera turned into.

Makes no sense

[Scott Richter]

A CEO who pays himself more than 40 times the median salary at his company is basically stealing.

Then the CEO of McDonalds would make less than his lawyers. Let's think this through.

Re:Makes no sense

[dipipanone]

Then the CEO of McDonalds would make less than his lawyers.

And in light of the quality of the product that he produces, that seems like very fair renumeration to me.

In fact, a much more reasonable way to reward him would be to make his salary commensurate with the homeless guy shaking a cup in the street outside his shops.

Re:Makes no sense

[eikonos]

Then the CEO of McDonalds would make less than his lawyers. Let's think this through.

Obviously the lawyers need to be paid less too. This might also solve some other problems.

Re:Makes no sense

[Scott Richter]

In fact, a much more reasonable way to reward him would be to make his salary commensurate with the homeless guy shaking a cup in the street outside his shops.

It must sadden you that moving to Moscow will no longer satisfy your communist dreams.

Re:Makes no sense

[Reziac]

Which might be all to the good, if it prevents a few CEOs from getting sue-happy.

He'll Cut Himself?!?!

[Vexler]

Hmm, that reminds me of a cartoon character sometime back called "The Tick". Maybe that describes McBride perfectly: A bloodsucking, parasitic low-life.

Re:He'll Cut Himself?!?!

[theguywhosaid]

except the tick was a loveable big blue dumbass.

Who ACTUALLY wrote that poem

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot to credit the original author of that piece - who was, of course, Rudyard Kipling.
The original is recorded here.

Re:Who ACTUALLY wrote that poem

[SEE]

I'd thought I'd included a link with an (Apologies to Rudyard Kipling) note at the end before I started changing the poem.

Obviously I didn't.

In my defense, though, who wouldn't instantly recognize it? Marking an altered Kipling poem is as unnecessary as marking a Photoshopped version of Da Vinci's Last Supper. It's not like anybody's going to mistake it for an original work, or assume the original was done by someone else.

lets look into m$ code... bet theres many lawsuits

[spacepimp]

Has anyone ever looked through the microsoft source code, or even apple for that matter to see how many law suits could be designed. im certainthere are many ip abuses among them as well, accept no on e can get in and look at their code. if lawsuits were turned on the big giant or apple, what would be the result. at least open source has a community openness so they artent hiding thiese things from others..

Darl...

[bernlin2000]

I have to say I dont feel too bad for the worms incident. It's not like he didnt ask for it :D It's ok darl, I still hate Bill Gates more :)

Re:SCO sold Linux under GPL, how can they resind i

[louden obscure]

I rememder seeing Caldera Linux in Compusa. (For some reason, I seem to remember reading it was based on Debian, of all distributions. Maybe I'm wrong here, tho'.)

caldera linux was rpm based. i know this cuz caldera linux was my first distro. it came bundled with a well written idiots manual. i learned a lot. i learned enough to leave caldera for debian. i have never looked back. although i still ocassionally look up arcane commands in the book.

There are even more evil ppl

[saigon_from_europe]

If someone employed Darl intentionaly knowing about his past, that one (or those ones) is/are even more evil people that Darl.

Who employed Darl? (Who employs managers in US companies? Board of directors?) Could anyone figure out the names of people who employed him?

Troll Alert! (was Re:Admit to Extortion)

[Anonymous Coward]

As I and others pointed out on groklaw when this was first posted back in an OT line,

Hey, you're anonymous and posting to Groklaw, so you're obviously a troll and probably a paid Microsoft shill too. We know it's you, Darl! Troll. Troll. Troll.

McBride the McWhore

[twitter]

... if you can, for a second, believe in what he's doing, like he does, you will make amazed at his dedication

If you can believe what he says, you can believe anything. SCO has no case. The article gives him and his case too much credit.

He's doing what he's doing for money, not because he believes he's right. He's trying to steal hundreds of people's work and charge money for it. An honest man would have produced the infringing code before they went to court. SCO's been in court for more than a year and has nothing to show for it yet. McBride, however, is just a puppet. Microsoft is behind this, they gave him the money and he's marching to their orders.

Re:McBride the McWhore

[Anonymous Coward]

Moderators: Please note that "twitter" is a known fanatical psycophant whose obnoxious offtopic rants are legend here on Slashdot. It doesn't matter what the topic is, he'll find a way to scrape in some pointless Microsoft bashing. While nobody expects us to love Microsoft in any way, his particularly tepid style of calling anyone he replies to "troll" or "liar" or "fanboy" because he happens to disagree with whatever they're saying is well documented and should not be rewarded. If anything, twitter is the type of person that should not be part of the open source/free software community. He is an anathema to all that is good about free software.

I'm posting this so that you (the moderator) have some context to consider twitter and not mod him up whenever he posts his filler preformatted rants about installing Knoppix or whatever that unfortunately get him karma every single time and allow him to continue posting his trademark toxic crap (read on) day in and day out. You may consider this a troll - I consider it community service. And I ain't kidding.

If you're a /. subscriber, I invite you to look through some of his posting history. I guarantee that you'll be hard pressed to find someone that is more "out there" than twitter. You'll also probably notice he's got quite an AC following. Don't just read his posts, make sure you go through the replies.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, check this post out. I mean, this is an article about email disclaimers, right? The parent of the post is complaining about the ads in the linked page and so on, and twitter actually goes off on a rant to blame it on Microsoft and recommend Lynx. WTF?

Here's another. In this post twitter not only calls the OP a troll but attempts to "tell it like it is" while making some vague argument about "GNU". Yes, if you're confused, you're not alone. The reply (modded +4) proceeds to simply destroy his bogus argument. You will notice he did not reply. This is what some people call "drive-by advocacy". A sort of I'll just leave you with my thoughts here and move on to the next flamebait kind of deal. In fact, he almost never replies because he knows that his fanatical arguments simply do not hold up to any sort of discussion. It's not that he's chosen the wrong cause - he's just going at it in a completely wrong way.

More? Just read though this post and the subsequent replies. I guess this stands on its own. Or these two. Or this one.

Still not convinced? This is what twitter considers "humour" while going about his daily "M$" routine.

More? Bad spelling in astounding conspiracy theories, more offtopic FUD and uninformed "I'm right, look at me" rants, promptly proven wrong. Worse even, twitter wants to be RMS, apparently (that first one is a winner). I mean,

Re:McBride the McWhore

[Anonymous Coward]

So what's your point?

By What Right?

[idiotnot]

Or maybe we should just mandate that CEOs can't make more than, say 1000 times what their lowest paid employee makes. If the lowest paid employee makes $20,000 a year, the CEO would be limited to twenty million a year.

What right do you have (or I, since you're obviously speaking for me also, when you use "we"...or maybe you have a tapeworm) to limit what CEO's make? That right is vested in the shareholders -- not someone who has no contacts with the company. I fail to see where, exactly, it's in government's power to regulate the internal affairs of corporations.

Besides, why would you limit it to CEO's? There are many companies where employees make more money than the CEO. How many times more money is Alex Rodriguez making than the guy wiping the seats at Yankee Stadium?

Bottom line is if you have a problem with the way a corporation does business, don't deal with that corporation. Don't come ask men with guns to come enforce your ideas on it when they're not forcing you to deal with them.

Re:By What Right?

[LMariachi]

I fail to see where, exactly, it's in government's power to regulate the internal affairs of corporations.

It's in government's power because corporations are a legal entity created by permission of the government via their corporate charters, which can be revoked.

Incorporation is a privilege, not a right.

Re:By What Right?

[idiotnot]

So is marriage; should government regulate what arrangements married couples have between them within the bounds of marriage? Sex? Financial arrangements? Division of household chores?

The same could be said of the tax status of a church. Should I be able to go in and force people to stop preaching tripe because they're in a government-sanctioned institution?

Your reasoning strives for adequacy but falls far short. There is a division of the public and private, and piercing the corporate veil is something which should not be done on a personal whim.

Re:By What Right?

[LMariachi]

Marriage is not a privilege, it's a right -- or it should be. Furthermore, marriage does not carry with it any special financial perks such as limitation of liability. If anything, there is an extension of liability, since the couple can be held liable for the actions of one partner.

The tax-exempt status of a church doesn't mean the government sanctions its dogma, but it does mean the church is limited in what activities it can perform. Churches cannot give to political campaigns, endorse candidates, or engage in substantial lobbying activities. So the government does indeed regulate the internal affairs of churches. There is currently some outcry by conservative Christian groups about this; what they fail to understand is that the IRS is not muzzling their right to free speech but placing boundaries on the privilege of their tax-exemptitude.

None of this is to say I'm in favor of a CEO salary-cap law. All I'm saying is that when government grants a privilege it has every right to make it conditional.

hmm

[oPless]

'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'"

Sounds like a sociopath to me.

Re:McBride is passe - I got a question

[Ralconte]

Linux will survive this idiotic onslaught, and whatever other challenges there are to come. In some other /. story, there was a link to a finacial news web page, discussing the SCO/Linux story in simple terms for non techies. At any rate they claimed the if Linux was found to be infringing, the Open Source community would just get together and rewrite the kernel. So I wondered -- Is this possible? Possible but so impractical as to seriously hurt Linux? Could the rewrite, however impractical, improve Linux to the point that it blows the competition away?

Comedy Latinum

[shadowbearer]

Holy Fucking Shit, where's the windex, there's beer all over my monitor!

rice_burners, you ROCK! That is the funniest damned thing I've ever read here.

Been working on it a while? ;-) Damn, man, you could give Carlin a run for his money IMO :)

SB

(Yeah, I said I quit, but this article got linked to in my google news email updates, and I just had to read it. Glad I did ;)

What do you mean "supercompetitive"

[heroine]

Look. Compared to the dot com years that may seem supercompetitive,
but for most of the history of software engineering, Anderer is normal.

Wife committing suicide? Writing bombastic emails at all hours?
Lighting fires under his butt. Slitting his wrists to win arguments.
He sounds like a normal, every day programmer in 2004, 1991, and 1980.

Guys like Anderer are the reality of the business.

Re:What do you mean "supercompetitive"

[Reziac]

Sad but true. Take an objective look at a lot of the "programming greats" (or for that matter, large chunks of present company) and you'll see varying degrees of dysfunctionality, right up to outright psychosis.

One has to wonder if the software business itself is essentially dysfunctional.

But Darl has an anti-gravity gun!

[shanen]

Their stock price refuses to fall to it's natural level! I tell you it has to be an anti-gravity gun!

Re:But Darl has an anti-gravity gun!

[Thor Ablestar]

So the next people to sue will be NASA (That is studying the antigravity, too) and George Lucas (the Star Wars imperial speeder bike)? ;-)

Windows is 10 times worse

[Gzip Christ]

The problem is that the free operating system created by Torvalds and his collaborators is poorly documented.

Wait a minute... if I recall correctly, in one of its anti-trust trials Microsoft said that it was not able to turn over the source code to certain older versions of Windows because it could no longer find the code! And Linux is "poorly documented" in comparison to what again?!?! Why on earth would organizations demand a paper trail of who submitted all the little patches that got rolled into Linux when Microsoft can't even produce the code that made up their old operating systems, let alone account for where the code came from? The world has gone mad.

Interesting ...

[Grell]

...How little comment this generates.

Why? Except for the eternal optimists hanging onto SCO stock, no one cares.

We're all just quietly waiting for the corporate equivalent of the sound of quick fried mosquito as SCO hits the Big Blue bug zapper.

It's not a totally useless article though.
It will serve as a great "See this? don't depend on this behavior as a business model, mmmkay?" warning in years to come.

~G

Darl's Insanity Explained

[Anonymous Coward]

"...years of devotion to the Oakland Raiders."

Scientific Society

[Nishi-no-wan]

But something is out of kilter when the heroes aren't the innovators, the discovers, the creators, but the MBAstard who can best throw his weight around.

Read "The Difference Engine" by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling. It's an alternate history located in London exploring the time line of "what if computers were created 100 years earlier?" The results were a society of scientists, where those who contribute to science become royalty (it's what's in your mind, not the color of your blood). There still are politicians, patent lawers, and other social leaches, but in the end, it's carefully thought out planning that saves London. (Ok, that's not quite the end.)

I realize that a lot of people here didn't like the book. I don't think that I really got it my first reading about 10 years ago, but on my second reading last month, the social structure Gibson was proposing really struck me. Would a society built on scientific principals work today? Or would the lawers and CEOs see to it that it never came about? Where would K&R and Linus be in such a society?

Caldera OpenLinux

[Anonymous Coward]

It wasn't Debian or RedHat based. COL was prety much it's own distro. It used RPMs, and Caldera was a partner in developing the RPM.

It had a lot going for it. However, it chose to use older versions of programs for stability sake (kindof like the STABLE branch of FreeBSD). It made it hard to upgrade some things manually. Security patches were patches to those OLD versions of the programs.

After McBride took over, Caldera started getting really sloppy about releasing patches. I had to manually patch several critical holes because they wouldn't release patches for 3-4 weeks (if they released them at all).

David Boies.. successful?

[nickmacey]

From the article: "Early last year, McBride hired famed litigator David Boies, who led the federal government's antitrust case against Microsoft and represented Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election recount." Boies may have not been the best litigator to hire, as his Microsoft case has been enforced less than anyone though possible, and Gore.. well... sure the hell isn't in the Whitehouse.

And distortion of space into another dimension

[dbIII]

Don't forget the magic breifcase that could hold legible printouts of a million lines of code. They are just a bunch of barbarians that think they've got a string of magic beads and think that any crap they say can be explained by magic - only they use the word technology instead. Living in this century doesn't change things.

Hmmm...

[arpy]

'He's supercompetitive,' said one. 'If he knows you'll faint at the sight of blood, he'll cut himself just to watch you pass out.'

Will he do it just to see me piss myself laughing though?

Pedantic objection

[Ohreally_factor]

Quixotic also implies a certain amount of romanticism, sentimentality, and nobility. Darl is in it for the money, the basest of motivations.

IT's so ironic

[DroversDog]

IBM create FUD

From the article, IBM sue in early 90's for Patent revenue.

I just hope my faith that IBM has changed is real or my laptop HAS to go back. I suspect it has although of course its only their new business model but it would be nice to think that a company can have a busines model that is around things like the failrness of the GPL.

IBM used to be known as I've Been Married until they realized that their key workforce were at least once divorced and alcolholics ( and possibly coke heads in the late 80's and early 90's) and saw that writing on the wall if they continued the conservative blue suit no weakness viewof the business world. That and the failure of many of their other bussiness practices made signifiucant changes in their busines model and particularly how they viewed their workforce.

So I am just making an observation and a wish that Big Blue is really the champion of modern business practice, that is make a FAIR profit from FAIR business practices..... we can only hope.

Well, he's a mormon...

[mangu]

How many wives did it take? But wait... Speaking on morMons, isn't it time to recycle those syMbian/sybian jokes?

eh??

[interactive_civilian]

sockonafish said:

Assemble an army of fainting geeks and march to Anderer's house!!!

[BAFNPR*]Well, they won't get very far now, will they?[/BAFNPR]

*British accent for no particular reason.

:-)

Good catch!

[Anonymous Coward]

McBride is fried. This septembre straight from the jail lab there will be something NEW at McDonalds: the McBride burger. With delicious humanic meat. Only available in the USA!

Re:SCO sold Linux under GPL, how can they resind i

[Pantheraleo2k3]

My first Linux distro was Caldera OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4. It was RPM based, had the 2.2 kernel, and had a full CD of source code. I still have the CD. The box also had a URL to download the source. However, it did come with some commercial Linux software as well as stripped down versions of PartitionMagic and BootMagic.

Corporate mercenaries

[kbahey]

This new info on those couple brings me painful memories about a company that I'd rather not name, to protect the innocent.

There are often those people who are corporate mercenaries, who are not motivated by any sort of principals or any sort of caring for the company, its customers, or its employees.

They just keep going from one company to the other leaving ruin in their wake, whether it is staff cuts, cutting R&D, exiting certain markets, ...etc.

They often hide behind a facade of a "new fad" in management style, and try to "change the company culture", and other nice slogans.

In reality, they only want the stock to rise at any cost, or for some other company to acquire their present one.

Crooks are no longer mafia style thugs in night clubs or gambling joints. They are in the boardroom, wearing suits and talking nice.

McBride is just another one of those, and not hte first nor the last.